“Best Of Intentions” by Travis Tritt.
Hits pretty close to home right now.
If we’re talking songs that make me curl up in a fetal position and go almost catatonic with grief, there’s two.
Verve Pipe, Freshmen; this one because it’s eerie how accurate it is for me. Clearly, they’ve been spying on me, and wrote the song just to mess me up.
Pachelbel’s Canon in D; surprising how such a simple melody affects me so much. And it’s not intended to be sad or melancholy. Mutter.
Pink Floyd’s “Hey You.”
“A Day in the Life”, the Beatles.
“Once in a Lifetime”- I concur. (I still haven’t bought the CD though. Sigh…)
“Three Libras”- A Perfect Circle. Have to agree with you again, Halber.
“Sweet Child O Mine” Guns N’ Roses
“Plowed,” Sponge
“Heaven Beside You” and “Rotten Apple”- Alice in Chains
“Aqualung”- Jethro Tull
“Turn the Page”- Metallica
“Paint it Black” and “Let it Bleed”- Rolling Stones (the latter isn’t all that sad, i just get sorta nostalgic thinking about it…can’t explain it.)
Better stop before I list too many…
“Brick,” Ben Folds Five.
“I will love you,” Fisher
“Winners,” K’s Choice
“Lightning Crashes” by Live
“Daddy’s little girl,” The Nields. It’s about a girl who comes out and is rejected by her father. “Nothing’s really different, I’m still the same. Telling you the truth has made you change.”
They’ve been mentioned, but Ana’s Song and Nightswimming get me as well.
More votes for songs already mentioned:
Kathy Mattea “Where Have You Been” – a colleague and I were in Italy on a business trip, and in a taxi on the way to a meeting. This album had just been released, and she was telling me about this sad song on it … so she starts reciting the lyrics. Well, by about halfway through, we were both crying, but then laughing because it was so ridiculous that we were en route to this important meeting and we were crying in a taxi. I’m sure the taxi driver thought we were nuts.
And “Amazing Grace”. I’ve heard a version of this sung a capella, in a round with “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” which is just heartbreaking.
Also
“Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd
“Wallflower” by Peter Gabriel
“Vienna” by Ultravox
“October” by U2
Just about all of Ziggy Stardust, too
La Marseillaise can sometimes make me choke up, because it makes me think of the scene in Casablanca.
Wow, there have been a lot of songs that I forgot about that were mentioned. So I say this. We don’t remember them all.
I like that these were mentioned and I will add commentary:
Taps–You don’t understand until you are there for the funeral for some very important miliary person and then later go to your grandfathers funeral and see your grandmothers face when this song is playing. It is by far the saddest experience. I almost died trying to hold it back. Nothing else here compares to that BTW. TAPS will always be #1 there is no way to argue this. If you question this then you just dont know.
Black-Pearl Jam–a very sad and somehow personal love song
It aint you babe-Bob Dylan
Somebody-Depeche Mode
Bridge over troubled waters-Simon&Garfunkel
As tears go by-Rolling Stones
In my life-The Beatles
Kiss Off-Violent Femmes but there are a couple worthy songs from the same album.
Here are a few more that are worth mentioning. Not in any particular order.
These arms of mine-Otis Redding
Operator-Jim Croce
Baby’s house-Steve Miller Band
What it takes-Aerosmith
Foolish Games-Jewel
Let her cry-Hootie& the Blowfish
Sister Morphine-Rolling Stones
The first cut is the deepest-Rod Stewart
Cats in the Cradle-Harry Chapin–for personal reasons but I think that song could make anyone cry if they listened to the story.
Time in a bottle-Jim Croce–great words
Joni Mitchell-River–again the words, actually her Blue album is the best.
Songbird-FleetwoodMac
Imagine-John Lennon
Black Peter-Grateful Dead
Love Hurts-Nazereth
Porcelain-Better than Ezra
Joey-Concrete Blond
Of course I could add several others some other time but…no time tonight. 
Oops.
Dlephica mentioned “Wish you were here” and I meant to add that.
Also Ziggy is nice but didn’t make me cry even though I listened to the album tonight.
The fact that someone cried just proves my opinion that Bowie is the ultimate entertainer.
Ziggy is one of my faves but I don’t cry when I hear “Five years” or “Starman” or even “Ziggy” though they are all nice songs. They make you want more. Why didn’t Bowie make 10 of these albums???
Anyway I have seen many cry to Babe from Styx. Though the song is not very sad for me now I can see why it could become a sad song. It’s a generic song and has no substance so I can see why it is forgotten. I’d rather cry over “Come Sail away”.
Sure for me Ziggy is a better album and is quite sad but it isn’t “sad” material. If you want something then listen to some Jim Croce or Joni Mitchell from the same year. How about the Eagles?
Waltzin’ Matilda
There are a few songs by Tom Waits which always get me… with Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis and Time at the top of the list.
And yeah, Amazing Grace can make even this agnostic cry.
I’ll roll my own cigs, and type my own sigs.
No, Pearl Jam covered it on a Christmas 99 single. That one gets to me all the time too. I still remember the first time I really listened to it. I was driving and I’m still thankful I didn’t end up killing myself. Which would have been ironic considering what the song is about.
The one thats guaranteed to get me off on a crying jag tho is Cats in the Cradle by Cat Stevens(or Ugly Kid Joe for that matter, tho I like the Cat Stevens version better). My dad and I…well I don’t think I can handle going over it now since I just got done listening to that song. sigh
Lamento della ninfa by Monteverdi. The Nymph has just been dumped for another girl, and she sings her heart out. This one always makes me cry.
Piece of my heart by Aretha Franklin.
Un bel di from Madame Butterfly by Puccini.
E lucevan le stelle from Tosca, also Puccini. Before he faces the firing squad, Caravadossi remembers the good times he has shared with Tosca. He has never loved life so much, but he must die.
Lovers for a day by Edith Piaf. This one’s a real tear-jerker. Two young lovers rent a room above a bar for the night. They are found dead the next morning by the landlady.
Amazing Grace is good with bagpipes, but for me, hands down the two best performances I have seen were by former patients of mine. One was an elderly black woman with a wonderful powerful gospel voice who had sustained a stroke. You could tell she had sung it a million times, but was more grateful this time than any. The second patient was less musically gifted, but the story behind his performance was even more moving. He had a traumatic brain injury and could not carry on a conversation. He could sing, though, and Amazing Grace was his favorite. He sang it at a performance at the rehab center and moved everyone to tears.
Amazing Grace may make you cry, but not because it’s a sad song.
It’s a song that brings you OUT of sadness with hope and joy.
…forgot to enter my “Sad Song” nominations
"I Still Cry" by Julie Miller
"Goodbye" by Patty Griffin
"Wicked Game" by Chris Isaac
I’ve a few… most are love/relationship related:
Dixie Chicks “You Were Mine”
S+G “I Am A Rock, America”
James Taylor covering “She Thinks I Still Care”
Tori Amos “Tear In Your Hand”
Beatles “For No One”
Elliot Smith “xo”
Squeeze “Up The Junction”
Eric Clapton “Without You”
10,000 Maniacs “What’s The Matter Here”, “Verdi Cries”
Trad. “Willie MacBride/The Green Fields Of France”
Pogues “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”
Everclear " My daddy gave me a name"
Christy Moore “The Middle Of The Island”
ok that’s enough for now…
For tears without music, try Matthew Arnold’s The Forsaken Merman.
Thanks for reminding me of The Pogues, MikeG. Don’t know how I forgot them, but they’ve got a few songs that fit this category:
Fairytale of New York
The Old Main Drag
Thousands Are Sailing
And I’ll second “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”
“Send in the Clowns” by Judy Collins.
And although the movie had a happy ending (more open, unabashed sobbing in a theater at the end of any movie I have ever attended), I could not hear the theme from “Born Free” for at least 10 years without getting choked up.
Along the lines of Everclear “My Daddy Gave Me a Name”, there is a song that I cannot listen to, and I have no idea what the name of it is.
Something about please don’t tell everything is wonderful now. I know that it is fairly recent, but after the first time I actually listened to the words I change the channel when it comes on.
Actually I think the Everclear song you mean is “Father of Mine.” Though it does include the line My daddy gave me a name.
Just doing my best to wipe out my daily ignorance quota.
::looking for the post I put on this thread earlier::
??
:
what gives? my post got erased!::
Oh! It’s here, on the OTHER Sad Songs thread!